12 Years Ago
by fangirlwriting
Summary: Well, even as five year olds, they seemed to get that it was the start of something. Neither of them knew what yet, but it was.


**A/N: This is based on this piece of fanart that I found once (and cannot find a second time) that had tiny children Jeremy and Michael talking underneath a slide, and my mind kind of jumped to 'That's how they met.' This is the result. Credit for the art goes to whoever made it, because I really don't know. Sorry.**

Jeremy's favorite days were ones where his mother took him to the park. They would begin with a walk around the park to see if they could spot any animals, and then ended up at the playground. But today was especially amazing, because his mother had finally agreed he was too big for the Baby Playground.

He had been complaining for weeks about he had just turned five years old. _Five._ He was much too big to play on the Baby Playground with three year olds.

So as his mom sat on a nearby bench and pulled out a book, Jeremy took the first, very dramatic steps up the Big Kid Playground.

And then he ran off, screaming in delight. He went down the Big Kid Slide about 50 times, jumped up and down on the bouncy bridge, crawled through the tunnel, and even managed the monkey bars (he was really proud of himself for that).

But when he landed at the bottom of the Big Kid Slide once again, he heard something that sounded like someone crying. And it was coming from the Baby Playground.

At first Jeremy hesitated. He was too big for the Baby Playground now, and the person was probably only crying because they'd scraped their knee or something.

But after he waited and the crying didn't stop (and he heard no one trying to counsel whoever was crying), he sighed and ran back over to the Baby Playground.

He located the source of the crying as coming from under the Baby Slide. The Baby Slide was separate a little ways from the rest of the rest of the Baby Playground, so it was a good place to hide. He glanced around the other side to see a boy wearing a red t-shirt and blue jeans.

"Hey."

The boy turned.

"What's wrong with you?"

The boy sniffed. "Some big kid called me a loser. I don't what it means, but he sounded really mad when he said it." he said, wiping at his nose with his arm.

"What? That's mean." Jeremy said, walking over and sitting down across from him. "I'm Jeremy."

The boy sniffed and wiped his nose again. "Michael." he replied. "Do you know what loser means?"

"It's not a very nice word, or that's what Daddy says. I think it means 'not cool.' But I don't know, I think your shirt is pretty cool." Jeremy said with a shrug. "Hey, my mom and dad got me this really awesome video game system for my birthday. You wanna come play? I'll let you be Player 1!"

Michael's eyes got big. "Really?"

"Yeah! But I have to ask my mom first."

"Yeah, me too."

"Okay, meet back here?"

Michael nodded, and the two ran off in separate directions.

"Mommy! Mommy!" Jeremy yelled, causing his mother to look up from her book in surprise. "Can Michael come over and play?"

"Michael?" his mother asked in confusion.

"Yeah, my new friend Michael! He's…" Jeremy looked around to see Michael running up to another woman who was trying to talk to Michael and another older boy both at once. "He's over there! I wanna show him my new video game console!"

"Um, well, let me go talk to his mother."

As she went to do just that Michael ran back over to the slide, so Jeremy joined him. "My mom says she has to talk to your mom." he said.

"Yeah, mine too."

"Was the other boy she was talking to the one who called you a loser?"

"Oh, no, that's my older brother. He can mean sometimes, but he doesn't call me names."

"Wow, you have a brother?"

Michael nodded.

"That's so cool! Do you think—". But he never got to finish as both mothers and Michael's older brother all walked over.

When Jeremy's mom handed Michael's mom a piece of paper with a phone number on it and vice versa, Jeremy knew that meant Michael was coming over. He cheered.

"Come on, Mikey! I have Mario Kart!"

The two ran off towards Jeremy's car, with Jeremy's mother struggling to keep up behind them.


End file.
